How you can use this image
This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).
Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.
The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
Notes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
A half-length portrait showing the sitter in two poses. On the left he is facing slightly to the right and looks forwards to meet the gaze of the viewer. On the right he is shown in right profile, looking straight ahead. In 1845, Sir John Franklin and his two ships, 'Erebus' and 'Terror', disappeared in the Canadian Arctic during their search for the North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Many searches for them were mounted. In August 1850, during Captain Austin's search expedition of 1850 to 1851, Captain Erasmus Ommanney in HMS 'Assistance' called at Cape York in Greenland where this young Inuit man was engaged as a guide. Initially known on board as 'Erasmus York' or 'Caloosa', he led Ommanney north to check on a rumoured massacre of Franklin's men, which proved false, then wintered with the expedition and came back with it to England in 1851, as it was impractical to return him to Cape York.
Kallihirua was one of few Inuit who became internationally known in the nineteenth century through their association with the Franklin searches. He was probably the first of the Northern Inuit to leave the Arctic. He adapted well and cheerfully to life in England and was much admired by those who knew him.
Title
'Qalasirssuaq' (Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua) (c.1832/1835–1856)
Date
probably 1851
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 63.4 x W 76.2 cm
Accession number
BHC2813
Acquisition method
National Maritime Museum (Greenwich Hospital Collection)
Work type
Painting